Spring cleaning gets a lot of press, but taking steps to spruce up your home for the holiday season is a lovely way to prepare for all the festivities and merriment that’s headed your way.
The changing of seasons is a personification of out with the old and in with the new, and a new collection of seasonal decor, kitchen items, and linens provides the perfect opportunity to let go of a few items that won’t bring you joy—or holiday cheer to free up your personal storage space.
If you’re looking for ways to tidy up around the home before the season begins, we’ve got you covered. Here are five tips for decluttering for the holidays.
#1 Declutter Your Decor
Early fall is usually when most people start pulling their holiday decorations out of storage and readying them for display. It’s a time-worn tradition and a sure sign that the holiday season is fast approaching. But it’s also a great starting point for your decluttering project.1
Whether you have enough seasonal decorations to fill a Christmas Tree Store or a modest collection of treasured objects, decluttering your decor means tackling two categories:
- Holiday decor – Those transitional weeks between seasons are the perfect time to pull out your boxes and bins of holiday decor and decide what survived the off-season, what goes on display, and what no longer serves you and your aesthetic. These might include ornaments, faulty holiday lights, and crumpled holiday wrapping paper. Then, when you’re finished decluttering for the holidays, they’ll be ready to go.
- Off-season decor – The items that decorate your home before and after the holidays can be taken down and stored separately until you need them again. And storing off-season decor in a self-storage unit keeps them from adding to holiday clutter at home.
#2 Store Your Summer Clothes
By the time you start thinking about decluttering for the holidays, you’ve probably already abandoned your shorts, swimsuits, and other summer clothes. But if they’re still in your dresser drawers or hanging in your closet, they’re most likely in the way of your cozy wool sweaters and scarves.
It’s time to pack the summer staples up and store them until next year.
To that end, here are a couple of tips for streamlining the process:
- Use plastic storage bins – Plastic containers will keep your clothes safe from water damage and any critters that might be looking for a cozy spot to hunker down over the winter.2 And when you buy several bins in a uniform size, you can easily stack them for clutter-free storage space at home or in a self-storage unit.
- Consider non-apparel summer home items – Your summer clothes and shoes are a good place to start decluttering for the holidays, but you should also consider storing other home goods that you won’t use over the holiday season, like beach towels or lightweight summer bed linens.
#3 Tackle the Toy Room
If you have little ones, it’s a good idea to turn your decluttering to their toy selection.1 You can make room for the onslaught of new toys and games that are coming their way by taking an inventory of what they already have. Now’s an excellent time to pack up:
- Summer and outdoor toys
- Old toys
- Pool and beach toys
If there are toys your children have outgrown, but you want to hang onto for sentimental reasons or future kiddos, consider putting them in a storage container so you can still revisit memories without taking up space in your childrens’ favorite room.
#4 Canvas Your Kitchen
Planning on improving your culinary skills during the holiday season? Make sure you include the kitchen when you’re decluttering for the holidays.3 You’ll need room for rolling all the dough and stuffing all those turkeys.
Plus, going through your cabinets, cupboard, and pantry can give you an idea of what staple ingredients and supplies you have on hand—and keep you from searching around for snowflake cookie cutters in a month or so.
#5 Enliven Your Entryways
Between family gatherings, “Friendsgivings,” and other festive get-togethers, most homes receive a few more guests during the holiday season than at other times of the year. You’ll need space to accommodate all their scarves, coats, boots, and other holiday gear, so be sure to pay special attention to your entryways when you’re decluttering for the holidays.
Entryways are high-traffic areas that tend to become the receptacle of the items we take with us when we leave the house but shed the second we get home. Areas to focus on include:
- Front door
- Mudroom
- Porch
It’s best to keep these areas well-organized and clutter-free during the holiday season so that guests feel welcome and comfortable when they come to call.1
Price Self Storage: A Solution For Any Season
When preparing for the holidays, clear your closets of summer staples, organize toy rooms and entryways, and inspect your home for any items you can donate or place in long-term storage.
If you want to take your holiday decluttering to the next level and clear up space at home, consider booking a self-storage unit with Price Self Storage.
Price Self Storage makes self-storage a convenient solution no matter your storage needs, whether that’s fall decor storage or moving during the holidays. We offer climate-controlled units with security features at several great locations, all with affordable prices, month-to-month leases, and other great amenities. Check out our storage size chart to know how much space you need.
For self-storage with peace of mind, choose Price Self Storage.
Sources:
- The Simplicity Habit. The Best Things to Declutter Before the Holidays. https://www.thesimplicityhabit.com/the-best-things-to-declutter-before-the-holidays/
- The Spruce. How to Store Summer Clothes. https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-store-summer-clothes-2147251
- Southern Living. 6 Ways To Declutter Your Home Before The Holidays. https://www.southernliving.com/home/organization/holiday-declutter
